


The Potato and the Scientist

by Shad_Geek



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24128896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shad_Geek/pseuds/Shad_Geek
Summary: Banished into Old Aperture after an unspeakable betrayal, Chell and GLaDOS must navigate their way through the old science facility. Neither of them were ready for who they would stumble across.Based off the old script from the second game where you find Cave Johnson.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Potato and the Scientist

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [N/A](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/618814) by Valve. 



> !!WARNING!!  
> Mentions of suicide and death are ahead! If you’re uncomfortable with this, I advise you to not read this.

Chell was exhausted. Mentally and physically. Any other person would feel the same if not ten times worse, having fallen down how many miles and still suffering from the wounds of a recent betrayal of one thought friend. As the braces and soles of her boots clanked along the metal catwalks, she searched for a room or chamber that would hopefully serve as a rest stop.

After trying the doors lining the left side of her, she finally found an unlocked handle. She twisted and pushed the door in, causing the old facility’s lights to spill in. It was much like the style used in Old Aperture, which was a no brainer considering how far below the Earth’s surface she was. The floor was cracked with what appeared to be an inch of dust covering the tiles. It rose in puffs as her boots kicked it up when she entered the room.

She left the door ajar, not wanting to waste time opening it if one of Cave Johnson’s forgotten innovations decided to come alive and chase them. She wouldn’t put it past the mad scientist to make such a thing. Though another reason for this action was to spill more light into the room, since the only light source came from the outside.

“Where are we going?” quipped the mechanical voice of GLaDOS as Chell led the way into the din, “I thought we were supposed to be stopping that moron.”

It was just a detour. But Chell didn’t say it aloud, only tightened her jaw to let the potato battery know that she had heard. Well, not a detour since she desperately wanted to rest, the last time being knocked unconscious for how many minutes it took for a crow to find GLaDOS didn’t count. Besides, maybe it was a short cut. The facility was so large and vast, even in Old Aperture there could be multiple ways from going from Point A to Point B. 

A light turned on as Chell stepped through a doorway, the only thing that lead out of that room that wasn’t the way she came. Though the light’s life of shining for long periods of time had fallen short as it began to violently flicker. At least it gave them something to work with.

Drowsiness had begun to cling on to her jumpsuit,making it heavy and her weary and wanting to find at least a corner without spiders or a chair to settle down in. It couldn’t be too hard, as she could see offices through a window to her left. Though how to get in it was the question. Perhaps she could continue on down the corridor and see if there was a door farther off to the side. And if that didn’t work, then she could always sleep on the ground. It wasn’t like anyone was going to walk over her, right?

With that sound solution, she set onward, the dim lights overhead struggling to bathe the hallway with little more than a dull glow. Chell had begun to be susceptible to tripping over fallen tiles, being used to bright lights and clean floors. Oh, this place was so different than the newer levels. 

But there was a sense of tranquility—if that was the word to describe it. It was peaceful, calm. Nothing Chell had experienced when going through the Enrichment Center. Even the out of bounds walls and catwalks were cold and uninviting. But here, they smelled thick with dust and mold, sure, but it was as if the host just wasn’t expecting guests but was welcoming all the same. The walls never moved and the floors never shook (aside from the echoes of the core in control of the facility). It was relieving to stretch out her hand and feel rock, which she could never do in the clean, sterile environment. 

She was driven out of both thoughts of the facility and finding a nice spot to enjoy a quick nap when a light, brighter than the others, was flickering above a white panel. If Aperture taught Chell anything (and it taught her a lot), it was that flickering lights and white panels meant that there was something to find. Really, it was if the creators of this place knew that someone in the distant future would stumble down here and discover their buried secrets.

With that curiosity in tow, Chell propped up her portal gun and shot a ball of blue light towards the panel. With a punching noise, a large oval of swirling blue was placed. She turned to the wall beside her and shot an orange light, which instantly ignited the portal. Without hesitation, she went through into a higher catwalk that lead to what appeared to be the second floor of the room she had been in just before. At the end stood a door.

Chell started forward, her boots clacking against the metal. The sound echoed along the high rock walls and concrete pillars, making it sound as if three identified people were in step behind her. Though she was alone when she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Much like the other room, it was dark, barely any light at all. There had to be something here. Why else would there be a portal surface? It would be a let down if it lead no where. She was not ready to face the jabs made by the potato if this little adventure wasted more time than they had available. But Chell would live if that happened... probably.

It was hard seeing through the dark room. There were no lights on that could save her the troubles of avoiding any fallen panels or crumbled concrete. She just moved blindly through it, occasionally catching the outlines of support beams and quickly moving out of the way to avoid colliding into them. 

Chell didn’t have to wander through the dark for long before she saw a gaping hole in the wall. It wasn’t hard to spot as she saw light filter through the air. And if she wasn’t mistaken, she saw a small orange arrow pointing to it. How strange. Her friend couldn’t be down here too. It would be impossible. Besides, once she got closer to the arrow for closer examination, it wasn’t drawn out in that bubbly fashion. It was just thin and messily drawn. And by the way her hand slipped off of it when she ran her fingers along the orange paint, she figured it was propulsion gel. Way to use the available resources to your advantage. It did make her wonder what her friend in the Enrichment Center actually used as paints. 

She didn’t ponder long about this new guiding friend, as they were probably long gone. The dust coating the cracked wall was an obvious sign that nothing here moved in ages. 

She peered down, looking at a portal surface at what seemed to be a thirty or forty foot drop. Although she couldn’t see that well, even if she squinted her eyes, Chell thought she saw something at the bottom. So that ruled out jumping down if she wanted to crush whatever it was. But she should otherwise proceed with caution if she placed portals down, worried that her worries from earlier would become a reality.

With the nagging thought in the back of her head, she aimed down at the panel, taking a jab with the gun and puncturing a hole in reality. Although she couldn’t see what was on the other end, she knew it lead to the other panel she had used to get into this specific room. That changed when she fired the next into the wall beside her. There, she got a look at what it was.

It was box-like, though far from a box. Too many wires. A small screen flashed different waves of text as an optic to the side stared at her through an amber iris. The machine looked hurriedly put together. Some wiring had been cut and sticking out like hairs would when exposed to electricity and those wires not broken were either wired in a tangled mess or were connected to various ports and strung to the walls and ceiling. The machine was spotted with rust, giving it a gritty brown texture. It was no larger than Chell’s waist.

She stepped through the portal looking down at it curiously. The optic in the top right corner didn’t seem to follow her, as if it were glued in the same place, unable to move. 

And with a burst of static, it spoke in an all too familiar voice. The fuzziness gave way into an enthusiastic voice that could be recognized anywhere.

“Hello there!” it said, “CEO of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson here.”

Chell took a step back out of shock, nearly leaving through the portal. Though something told her to stay, so she did just that and continued to look at the machine.

“Kinda funny, isn’t it?” the machine—Cave Johnson—said, “It’s me! My engineers had managed to figure out how to plug me into one of these things before I could kick the bucket! Not bad for a bunch of high school graduates with buckets of bolts in their heads, eh?” He tone turned humorous at the irony. 

“Mister Johnson...” murmured the battery, her yellow optic glowing brighter each syllable she said. She sounded confused, in awe. 

Cave Johnson had begun to start on a rant about being stuck on the bottom of a pit before he cut off. Something within him whirred, as if it were taking a great deal out of his ancient parts to process the voice. 

“Is- is that Caroline?” he asked, his optic flickering in recognition. Chell knelt down, the barrel of the portal gun pointed at the old, scuffed up glass so the founder could see eye to eye on with GLaDOS.

“Yes sir, Mister Johnson,” she replied in the same amount of enthusiasm he possessed at the start of the interaction. Her tone instantly changed into one of more confusion and horror. “What the-? I didn’t mean to say that!”

The rusted machine was silent for a moment. “Damn, when I said I wanted an operating system, I didn’t mean a potato battery. What were those idiots thinking?” He sounded disappointed. But he recovered with a more pitiful approach, “I’m sorry they did this to you. If I had known I would’ve fired every last one of them.”

She didn’t respond. Chell couldn’t blame her. The two had no idea of what he was going on about, although they had their fair share of Cave Johnson’s prerecorded rants about firing people. 

“Wait-“ he said, becoming confused. He whirred more as if the onslaught of emotions and feelings were overwhelming his system. “Do you remember anything, Caroline?” He had caught on to her silence and interpreted it as exactly that.

“I’m afraid not, Mister Johnson,” the potato replied in a monotone voice. 

“Come on, you must remember something!” Cave Johnson pleaded in exasperation, “You were my assistant, the face of Aperture Science with me!” He took her further silence as a “no” and continued. “I can’t believe it, I’m stuck in this rusted piece of scrap metal and have all my memories of starting a shower curtain company and you don’t remember a single thing.”

Chell felt another rant bubbling up inside of him. She wouldn’t be surprised if it were about all the crazy, good for nothing scientists who were too incompetent to do the simplest things such as pressing the “IMPORTANT: KEEP MEMORIES” button. 

So she set the portal gun on the ground and retreated to the side as she wasn’t contributing to the conversation anyway. Perhaps as the two AI talked, she could catch a wink of sleep. Though it would be hard with Cave Johnson’s loud voice. 

Chell stood off to the side, debating whether or not she should sit down. She elected in standing at the end, her right hand clamped over her left elbow in the portal gun’s absence. As the two chatted, she watched them with a hawklike gaze that turrets possessed. 

She pondered on Cave Johnson. It was sad, really, seeing him here, forgotten. How could the founder and CEO of Aperture Science get tossed into a poorly put together mess of metal and wires and left abandoned like a storage cube, doomed to sit forever? He had lived up to so much. And now he was here in a forgotten corner.

“I said ‘no’, Mister Johnson,” GLaDOS replied, in a stern voice that would shoot down any other attempts of jogging her memory. 

“Hmm disappointing. Anyway,” he said, turning from anger to cheerful again, “I’m sorry we had to stick you in that huge thing first, Caroline. I wasn’t sure if I’d live long enough to see myself do it so you had to be the lab rat. Heh. But my lab boys did manage to scrape something up before I passed on.”

She fell silent again. Even if she was just a potato, Chell saw it obvious that she didn’t want to talk about such touchy matters, whether she remembered them or not. It seemed that just like in those prerecorded tapes, Cave Johnson wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.

He must’ve figured it was a lost cause in continuing that topic so he switched gears into another. “Care telling me about why you’re... in that? I thought you’d be in something more grander. When I said I wanted an employee’s consciousness put in a computer, I didn’t mean a vegetable.”

“It’s a long story, Mister Johnson,” she replied after a pause, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Her voice turned bitter and it was most likely a jab towards Chell to show how much pain she put the AI in for helping out someone she called a friend.

“Oh, goodie because I don’t think I’m in the mood for listening to drawn out tales. You see, I have a request.” He turned serious although it get as if he were smiling when his voice processor let it out. “Hey, Test Subject you listening? I’ve got a favor for you. You listening?”

Chell perked up, confused as to why the founder and CEO of Aperture Science wanted her help. If she were to carry him around, she would flat out refuse. It would be a nightmare, especially with all of those wires sticking out of his blocky body. She moved back in front of his optic, picking up GLaDOS and the portal gun.

“You see,” he said, “I’ve been down here for a very long time. At the bottom of this pit with nothing but my own ideas of combustible lemons keeping me company. It’s completely draining.” The conversation was starting to follow Chell’s undesirable thoughts of having another AI accompanying her. 

“Now, being stuck in a machine is no picnic. I have no idea how Caroline is sane stuck in that plant. But for me, it’s horrible. Can you just shut me off? In layman’s terms, I’m asking you to kill me.”

Now, Chell was not expecting that. She raised a concerned eyebrow, glancing down at the potato for her opinion.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” she said, “It can’t be me and it can’t be him.”

Chell looked back down at the rusted piece of metal. Pity washed over her. She wasn’t on board with the idea at all, as Cave Johnson was a real person, his consciousness living on. It was different than what she felt with GLaDOS. Killing the AI was the only thing she could do. She had nothing against the man now computer in front of her. It felt wrong.

GLaDOS was not happy with her standing around. “Look- if you’re not going to, then I will.”

“With what arms?” Cave Johnson replied, bringing up a point that Chell completely agreed with. It wasn’t like she could use panels or something to crush the computer into nothing but spare parts (which wouldn’t be a long shot of what he was right now, seeing how messily and quickly he was put together).

She wasn’t going to murder innocents. Chell frowned down at him and backed out of the portal. Still in the room, she could clearly see Cave Johnson. 

“Fine, run along. I’ll wait for some other chap to come down here,” he said in an annoyed and disappointed voice. “I’ll wait a few more centuries for the happily ever after I want.”

It was quiet for a moment. It was almost sad, seeing the optic blink on and off as he stared at them through the portal.

“Goodbye, Caroline,” he finally said.

The portal to him disappeared as she popped them both on the wall next to each other. Chell could still hear his voice echoing up from the platform below from that final farewell. Shaken, she made her way back to the door and not look back. She had her share of AI, but none troubled her as deeply as Cave Johnson. 

She understood why he would want things to end. He had been sitting, staring at a white wall for who knew how long, waiting for either the facility to power down or one of those artistic guardians to pull the plugs from his sockets. Chell imagined her hands reaching down along the wires and pulling them out, bit by bit until the amber optic faded to nothing and the whirring stopped. She felt sick and clutched her hands tightly around the portal device, welcoming the feeling of the lack of corroded metal. 

Guilt hung in the back of her mind, eating her alive. It would’ve done the same if she had killed him. But even as she walked back towards the catwalk that would lead them out, it grew more and more. She knew that it would’ve gone if she had actually carried it out. 

“You should’ve done it,” GLaDOS said as they made their way back to the offices.


End file.
